Soil phosphorus

As I "dig" deeper into the soil microbial world I am amazed how much we understand but few utilize what we do know. The word is getting out that if we let the soil microbes thrive and multiply by feeding our soil degradable plant and organic material the microbes will give our plants and crops back the nutrients they need. We are now finding that by adding fertilizers directly in the inorganic form we are bypassing the natural soil microbe /plant signaling process needed to produce a healthy and vibrant symbiotic relationship.

I am seeing a number of products from rock phosphates that are desperately needed by crops according to the companies. On the opposite end of the spectrum, much has been researched/written about the significant bank of phosphorus that has been added to fields or retained for almost a century. Many crop soil in Iowa, for example, has high concentrations of P in their soils but most are organic or mineral forms not available for plant uptake unless converted to the inorganic form.

As we are finding with most other plant and crop nutrients, if we maintain a healthy microbial population in our soil they will do the heavy lifting of organic to inorganic conversion, making the addition of P unnecessary or at least minimized. The research showed that endophytes, bacteria or fungi, that can live inside plants that were taken from poplar trees can be inoculated into crop soil or seed coatings to perform the same function. The endophytes are natural components of poplar trees, not a lab genetic mutation or designed microbe!

https://www.washington.edu/news/2020/11/24/microbes-help-unlock-phosphorus-for-plant-growth/